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Dr. Wendy Harrison recently spoke to Francis Peel from the London Centre for NTD Research about the relationship between academia and NTD community and the growing demand for cross-disciplinary research.

The NNN encompasses multiple NTD cross-cutting working groups with the goal of developing key technical resources to share among the NTD community and is continuing to forge partnerships across multiple sectors to ensure equity and inclusion. These groups complement the disease-specific communities within the NNN and ensure a comprehensive approach as set out under the BEST Framework.

“We tried to involve the WASH sector but they’re not interested.”
“We need them more than they need us.”
“We have no funds to hold coordination meetings.”
Statements like these are common when discussing the need for neglected tropical disease (NTD) control programmes to work closely with agencies that provide water and sanitation services and are valid reasons that prevent essential coordinated action.

NNN Executive Committee members Leah Wohlgemuth (Sightsavers) and Prof KH Martin Kollmann (CBM) set out how the BEST framework, adopted by the NNN in 2016, moves away from mass-treatment focused medical approaches and integrates the broader causes and social effects of NTDs - making cross cutting components of Water, Sanitation and Hygiene (WASH) as well as Disease Management, Disability and Inclusion (DMDI) central to success and sustainability... Read more

This year's annual African Union Summit was an important and historic milestone for the neglected tropical disease community. For the first time, an NTD index was included in the African Leaders Malaria Alliance (ALMA) scorecard, tracking progress in the coverage of drugs distributed for the five NTDs (trachoma, lymphatic filariasis, onchocerciasis, schistosomiasis, soil-transmitted helminths), amendable to preventive chemotherapy (PC-NTDs).

Non-governmental organizations (NGOs) are uniquely placed to reach the world’s least-served populations and therefore play a critical role in working with governments towards achieving universal health coverage (UHC).

Neglected tropical diseases (NTDs) are causes and consequences of poverty, disability and marginalization. They disproportionately affect the world's poorest communities and can have profound physical, mental, social and socioeconomic effects on those who lack the resources for prevention, treatment and care. Thus NTD programs can be viewed as an investment in the poorest and most marginalized communities and a critical step towards... Read more

From some sources it has seemed that men are more commonly affected by leprosy than women. There is now evidence to show that this is far from the case and that, in fact, there is near parity in the rates of affected women and men; but why the confusion?

A three-minute animated video, “Best Foot Forward,” depicts the source, treatment and prevention of podo. The video was created by Footwork: The International Podoconiosis Initiative, in partnership with Ripple Effect Images, a group of National Geographic contributing photojournalists, to raise awareness of this neglected disease.